Comic-Con 2015: ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ Gets Full Trailer and August Premiere

The Walking Dead may have blown the roof off Comic-Con 2015 by its Season 6 trailer, but the zombie apocalypse has only just begun by our first full look at companion spinoff Fear The Walking Dead. Not only do we at last know when our Fear will premiere, but the new trailer teases our best look yet at The Walking Dead‘s West Coast prequel.

Fear The Walking Dead will finally premiere on Sunday, August 23, followed by an installment of Talking Dead, which may not follow every episode, but at least return for the finale.

Showrunner Dave Erickson talked about reasons for setting the show in LA, hoping to actually showcase the fall of a major city. People come to LA to reinvent themselves, but all of the family drama will be filtered through a family drama first. Walkers will be “the shark you don’t see,” at least at first.

Timewise, the first six episodes will likely unfold over two or three weeks during Rick’s five-week coma.

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The trailer looked surprisingly great, considering how little we’ve seen thus far, and presented at widescreen to boot. Frank DIllane’s character is the first to witness the rise of walkers in a heroin den (we saw him fleeing in the earlier clip), before getting hit by a car. Soon, videos of walkers rising and being shot go viral, building up to panic and massive riots and chaos in the streets. Madison and Travis get separated, Travis holding up in a store owned by Ruben Blades’ character.

“When civilization ends, it ends fast.”

Producers discussed that where The Walking Dead proper has Rick as a leader, and introduces such larger than life characters, Fear focuses more on Travis as an English teacher, or Nancy as a guidance counselor, people who aren’t necessarily equipped to be leaders. Carol for instance, provides a stern example of someone going through those changes, which is where the show’s drama will live.

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Gale Ann Hurd elaborated that where most people watch the news and assume outbreaks will disappear, Fear The Walking Dead will show people coming to terms with the fact that there is no figuring things out.

Greg Nicotero used Emma Bell’s Amy as a reference for Fear The Walking Dead’s walkers, just human and fresh enough to look sickly, but not necessarily dead. They still act like walkers, but show the tiniest signs of life in their eyes to have people mistake them for ill, and wind up bitten as a result.

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Chris Hardwick also spoke to Alycia Debnam-Carey on her role as Alicia, different from Carl, in that Alicia is herself a young adult at the outset of the apocalypse. “Probably gonna screw up your hormones even more.”